Hi Pat: I have 6000 shares of Sino-Forest. It is a large portion of my portfolio. I notice that the shares have been going south. What is your take on Sino-Forest? Thanks.
Sino-Forest Corp., $17.65, symbol TRE on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 242.5 million; Market cap: $4.3 billion), is a Canadian-based forest-products company that operates in China. Sino-Forest grows and harvests trees on 694,100 hectares of land on plantations in eight Chinese provinces. It also holds options to buy an additional 890,000 hectares.
Sino-Forest gets 96% of its revenue by operating plantations and harvesting trees. The remaining 4% comes from its manufacturing operations, which mainly make lumber for the construction industry, including homebuilders. China accounts for almost all of the company’s sales.
Over the past few years, the Chinese government has encouraged forest-product companies like Sino-Forest to enter into land-lease agreements with local farmers. Under these deals, the forest-product firms grow their timber on the farmers’ land rent-free. Once the timber is harvested and sold, the forest-product companies share the profits with the farmers. Aside from giving local farmers income, these agreements are meant to curb soil erosion.
The company is also expanding by purchasing other…
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